27

Chayan

Prithvi was terrified. How could she not be? As for everyone else, the visuals in front of her were too awful to comprehend immediately. But while her friends yearned for safety alone, she had far more on her mind. Her journey extended beyond the Mahayatra—to the plains, to Bhavesh.

Did that make her selfish, to not worry about her family instead? Maybe. But she didn’t care. It was Bhavesh she missed. He who had introduced her to this powerful, arresting feeling called love. And it was he who was uppermost in her mind in this time of need.

Lub-dub . . . Lub-dub . . .

Without a right thumb, Prithvi tucked between her index and middle fingers the trembling arrow as she stood, part of the tight circle around Yuvan’s body and the small fire beside it. Jagrav’s gada was awfully close to her face while she looked out into the dark from where the spear had arrived. The thick curtain of blackness all around them overpowered the little illumination from the fire.

This is it . . . the test of all my training, the Tritiya Archer told herself.

They waited, ready to strike at any noise. But there was only stillness. It was quiet. Too quiet.

In fact, the stony silence was so prevalent, so loud, that an imaginary drumming—or maybe it was the Souls’ collective hearts—started to take over. Lub-dub. Prithvi’s heart may have been a war drum. Is it just in my head?

But it got louder and louder. Lub-dub . . . Lub-dub . . . Lub-dub.

‘AAAARRRRGGHHHHHH!’ Jagrav burst out of their little pocket of light into the unknown, swinging his gada frenetically.

Someone should have gone after him, but they all stayed rooted to their spots.

Almost a minute later, Jagrav reappeared, his gada lazily dragging behind him. ‘No enemies here, that’s for sure.’

What? How can that be? Prithvi had only just turned to the Eka when she saw Idhika’s jaw drop. ‘Keep me guarded!’ She sat down and closed her eyes.

It didn’t take long. After a few seconds, Idhika’s Deh stopped glowing and she opened her eyes. ‘Look up. Towards that mountain in the north above our heads. Do you see them?’

A snowy peak towered ahead of them in the distance. Prithvi could see tiny figures of what looked like a bunch of men, but in the darkness she couldn’t discern much more. How many are there? Her grip was firm on the drawn bow. She finished her prayer and whispered to her arrow the final word, ‘Ekalavya’, before firing towards the mountain.

The arrow shot up towards the men on top and burnt a bright red. However, before it could reach the men and fully illuminate their area, it was met with an opposing spear that derailed its trajectory. In that split second, however, the Souls caught sight of twenty, maybe even thirty faces. And the faces did not belong to any ordinary humans. It was a pack of kirtimukhas.